Dark Nine [18+]

Chapter Seventy-Five

Maelstrom's POV

I hold my finger to my lips to keep my siblings quiet. Diasphora watches with me, down toward the strange shimmer in the air, walking through the Kor Prison.

I gather Entrpy and Ephereum close by, they are covered in star dust from the gardens. Venus told us to spend time in nature and bond together. All we needed was the dust on the surface of the planet – we didn't need to feed. I had led the babies through the Ninth nature trails, and then we all came back together to the prison, me leading them. I was going to watch over my brothers as they napped, but then I heard faint foot falls.

I place Entrpy carefully on my left shoulder and Ephereum on my right, they are small but they can hold onto my ears and hair as I draw back the bowstring and feel the pull on the energy in my veins.

It charges the arrow to the centre, as I focus on the intruder, not Kor but a subspecies in a military active-s-c uniform, causing an almost identical Stealth to Kor kind, but not close enough. I can see the way the air shimmers around the intruder.

The person stops below the throne, answering a call, speaking in another language. E gave me a deciphering model in my head, technology that was Elion, and not exactly engineering, as much as it was magic.

It makes the foreign words translatable.

"Tracks are fresh but no sign of the babies."

Another voice replies.

"Find them today or you and your sister are dead."

"I can find anyone for you, why small children? Tell me."

"Their skins at that age have magical properties, the kind that will make you immortal. Find at least one of them, Tron, or your sister is dead by nightfall!"

The conversation is almost over, Tron is swearing.

"Fucking Sral, I'll get you one – you sick mother fuckers... I feel their eyes on me..."

I panic as the top of the shimmer, his head, looks up, and I feel his gaze returned on mine.

He sees me – I pull back the bow and release the energy bolt.

The green laser leaves a firey trail, the intruder swivels.

I missed! I duck behind the stone barrier with my brothers. We're on the fourth level.

"Hold on," I grab Diasphora's hand, while Entrpy and Ephereum grasp my ears so tight, it hurts – but they're terrified too. I try to work out how I'll run with them to the nearest ET portal. I don't trust my own teleportation abilities.

The rocks in front of us explode when a laser beam is shot our way – so strong and powerful it would have taken us all out if it had been a few inches to the right. So the intruder missed too, but the explosion has caused both babies to scream.

"STORIE!" Entrpy shrieks.

"MOGA!" Ephereum pulls my hair in his chubby little hands.

"Big brother!" Diasphora tugs on my hand, "Take us!"

"I'm TRYING," I scream back, tears running down my face as I try to access the teleportation my fathers had mastered. Neptune had tried to teach me but I found it extremely difficult.

I try to focus on their energies. The Estori's twins are thinking of him, and mother. Diasphora lends me his energy as he thinks of mother too.

I reach out into the universe with the power I have, able to see highways of light and dark because even the dark burns a certain light when it's Kor power. I see a mixture of gold and dark, it's faint but it's the first sign of our family.